Even in the event of a great wish it is difficult not to admire the encouragement and stubbornness level of the Armenian government. The encouragement is connected with their own steps and stubbornness is connected with the attempts of conveying their encouragement to the MPs.
We have once adverted to this theme, according to which every time Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan would make a speech he would for 80% repeat the ideas, which he had uttered in the past. On June 8 during the discussion of the fulfillment of state budget 2009 in the National Assembly Sargsyan made a speech, which was no exception from others. The core of that speech was once again the anti-crisis initiative of the Armenian government and the “learning” of the government regarding diversification, oligopolies and other things. And if in the past people were thinking that Sargsyan follows the slogan that “repetition is the mother of knowledge” by trying to provide some knowledge of economics in the National Assembly then now we quite seriously think that it is so.
However, month by month a very important thing is being changed in the speeches. It means that the beginning of the year the economic growth was in the frames of 2, then it turned 3%, with the data of the quarter – 5.5 and with the data of January-April – 7.2. “It is understandable that the expansive anti-crisis policy the activities should have left their impact on the economy and we registered that in the second quarter of 2009.” Armenia’s GDP grew 7.2% in Jan-Apr 2010, compared with the same period of the previous year. This is the third highest GDP indicator in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The CIS Statistical Committee says Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus reported 11.3%, 7.6%, 7.2%, 7.1% and 6.1% GDP growth in Jan-Apr 2010. According to the statistical report, the CIS member countries’ year-on-year GDP growth averaged 3.5% in Jan-Apr 2010. GDPs of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Russia have grown 6.1%, 5%, 4.8% and 2.9% over the mentioned period of this year. Moldova faced 6.5% decline. “The economic slump started to decrease from 18.3% and we completed the year with a 14.2% slump and in 2010 these activities have given their positive results and we during the four months already registered a 7.2% economic growth. We are sure that the indices of 2010 will be higher than we were anticipating in the beginning of the year,” the Prime Minister said. It is understandable the higher the number is the words of the Prime Minister will be more impressive. But it turns out that the numbers do not impress the MPs at all. So it becomes necessary for them to repeat the learning of the crisis and the glorious story of the anti-crisis program of the government. In fact, it is possible to understand the thrill of the government. After the humiliated picture of the previous year when the economic slump would only yield to the Ukrainian indices the numbers of the current year give grounds to the government to brag. But their extreme thrill is not justified. The current dynamics of economic growth almost doesn’t differ from the growth of the rest of the CIS states – growth, slump, recovery (see the table). “Having had a 14.2% economic plummet we in the meantime agree that the financial, social and economic systems have showed a very high level and our anti-crisis programs demonstrated a positive result. In the first place they enabled to temper the negative social consequences,” said Sargsyan. But the same table shows the actual resistance level of our economy. When growing we have grown faster than any other state and the slumps have harsher than all the other states. This is an exact Armenian approach. The only country that suffered more than us in 2009 was Ukraine. But as you see they are also recovering. And so no miracle happened. Moreover, there is nothing to become too thrilled about especially in the context of a comparison (see the table). For example, according to the data of January-March with the GDP we have exceeded Belarus and Ukraine and a little more exceeded Azerbaijan – by 0.1%. But there are indices, which we cannot brag about at all. For example, with the 8.4% inflation we have exceeded everyone. According to the data of the intergovernmental statistical committee of the CIS the investments in the main capital have reduced by 0.6% as well. As of the 60% of exportation, about which our governmental officials speak with admiration then the medium index for the CIS states is 57.3%. Therefore, there is nothing outstanding here. Instead, it would be more accurate to pay attention to importation, which has grown by 23% in January-March by exceeding the rest of the states behind. Let us also mention that the thrill is also transferred to the subordinates. For example, we could mention the deputy-minister of economy Ara Petrosyan. “We are today giving the response as to what the government should do to overcome the crisis. Our expectations are exceeded,” recently told the journalists A. Petrosyan when speaking of the anti-crisis activities of the government, the privileges given to select eight companies including the delay of the payment of the VAT tax for three years. At any rate, thrill is not a very bad thing. It’s OK that these eight companies have worked decently and the government takes on their efforts. The most important thing is that the person should be satisfied with his/her work. Or they could take on the efforts of others and get sufficed. This is an incentive.